Publisher's Summary

Hear writers Michael Chabon and Jon Savage on this edition of Fresh Air.

Michael Chabon won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. His new novel is The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel. His other books include The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and a collection of stories entitled Werewolves in Their Youth. He has also written for many publications, including The New Yorker, Harpers,, and Esquire.

Then, Jon Savage, who's the author of the landmark book on the punk era, England's Dreaming. His new book, Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture, is about the "prehistory of the teenager". The commonly held notion is that teen culture emerged in the mid-1950s, but Savage finds that it began much earlier. One of the things he's found is that the first best-selling memoir of teenage angst was published in 1875. And along the way came J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, Booth Tarkington, Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland, and Leopold and Loeb. [Broadcast Date: May 3, 2007]